To speak to someone about this? Even though it could end up bad

[mugoverandover]

I've had the worst night of my life, not slept a wink,
I love in a flat where it's 2 up 2 down,
My downstairs neighbour split up with her partner a few month ago from abuse,
I think she's always been a bit of an alcoholic, she rings me most weekends but I ignore the call because she literally just drunk talks for hours. She has 2 children 3 & 14,
Last night she got so drunk she's burnt her gazebo in our shared garden, burnt loads of random rubbish on the grass, all the fire pretty much went out but I couldn't sleep for worry and I looked out of my DS's bedroom window at 6.30am and she was flat out asleep on the pavement in the back garden about half a meter away from a bit of flame still burning, I went down and got her to stand up, put her inside and to bed, her children are asleep but her back door had been absolutely wide open, I locked it and posted the key,
I'm worried for children, but I'm also worried for her,
What do I do?

A bit of advice I always work with.... If you ended up in court is a witness.... 'what did you know and what did you do about it/who did you tell'. You are in such a terrible situation, and your role in this can purely only be in a first aid sense... You see something and you let the relevant authorities know and they make a professional call on it and deal with it. Hand it over, far too huge for one person to be coping with, particularly in the current situation. ❤️

@ClarencesMum that’s interesting what you said about the NSPCC. What makes you say that? Genuinely interested and not having a go!

Thanks everyone I had an early night and slept for 12 hours thankfully, I feel a bit better today although still worried deep down, I won't be going in the garden for a while I feel too awkward

You've done the right thing by contacting SS OP. I hope they can help.

If you talk about it to the other neighbour you lose the opportunity of doing this anonymously.

I recently had to report someone to ss and have since been abused and threatened.

I also agree about the use of emojis being inappropriate but it’s not deliberate I think. In fact when I have been sent the most awful and abusive texts they have also been littered with emojis which gives the whole message a comical aspect that is most definitely not intended.

You've done what you feel was right. Only you know the circumstances intimately - us readers don't know as you've given scant details.

To all those who @ -ed me, it's perfectly reasonable to have differing opinions, so there is no reason for you to shout at me for holding a different view.
If I was as confident as you all are that the children would be better off in the long or short term with SS involvement and foster care, my advice would be the same as yours, but unfortunately I'm not.
I hope that she gets positive involvement and the situation changes.
You did what you thought you had to do, so no reason to feel guilty or awkward.

You did the right thing op, this will change those childrens lives for the better, very disturbing and dangerous situation for u all

If you start to feel bad, tell yourself you did it for them. Not to them. How would you justify your action in 20 years to those children? Would you feel comfortable saying “I knew what was happening but didn’t say anything as I didn’t want to offend anyone” or “I stood up for you guys and tried to do the right thing?” You have done the right thing.